Yale Bulletin and Calendar

May 18, 2001Volume 29, Number 30



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Manipulating molecules through nanotechnology

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has awarded a total of $3 million to Yale electrical engineering and applied physics professor Mark Reed to continue research in the area of nanotechnology, a field involving the controlled manipulation of atoms and molecules.

The grant was given through the DoD's central research and development organization, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

"This is the fourth consecutive award from DARPA in this new area of molecular electronics that I initiated with a DARPA grant in 1992," says Reed, the Harold Hodgkinson Professor of Engineering and Applied Science and chair of electrical engineering. "Our pioneering work in this area was recognized by DARPA as the program's 'Most Significant Technical Achievement Award' in 1997."

Reed and his team of researchers from Rice University, Pennsylvania State University, North Carolina State University, SRI International, Duke University and the University of South Carolina, will receive $1 million a year for three years, with the possibility of additional funding in the future.

Reed will also share in two other grants under the 2001 DoD University Research Initiative on NanoTechnology program (DURINT), which is designed to address large multidisciplinary nanotechnology topics. The topics include "Characterization of Nano-scale Elements, Devices, and Systems" with Stevens Institute of Technology, University of Virginia, University of Illinois, Purdue University, Northwestern University, University of South Carolina, North Carolina State University and UC Santa Barbara; and "Polymeric Nanophotonics and Nanoelectronics" with SUNY Buffalo, University of Washington, UC Berkeley and MIT.

The DoD awarded 16 research grants to 14 academic institutions to conduct nanotechnology research in basic science and engineering and 17 equipment grants for support of this research and for graduate students. The competition drew 334 white papers, which generated 95 proposals from which 16 were funded. The nanotechnology equipment competition drew 89 proposals from which 17 were funded.

Reed's research is centered on nanotechnology, a marriage of chemistry and engineering that allows scientists to build things one atom or molecule at a time. His research adapts recently developed chemical self-assembly techniques to make nanometer-scale electronic devices, such as computer memory chips. According to Reed, the experimental emphasis is on preparing and testing molecular dynamic random access memories (DRAMS), work which will be reported in the May 28 issue of the journal Applied Physics Letters. These devices utilize self-assembly and inherently solve the tremendous fabrication difficulties that plague other novel molecular-sized devices, such as carbon nanotubes.

Reed says this or similar technologies, if successfully transferred from the research labs to industry, could produce very low-cost memory chips.

"These new approaches and methods have changed the way we think about nanoscience," Reed says, "opening up new fields of investigation and making some very complicated experiments easy and accessible to anyone. We even have high school students doing nanoscience in our labs."

Marieangela Lisanti, a local high school student who works in Reed's lab, recently won first place in both the Intel and Westinghouse National Science Competitions. P ALIGN="RIGHT"> -- By Karen Peart


T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

New center supporting legal reform in China

Team finds 'surprising ability' in bone marrow cells

Notable speakers will highlight this year's Commencement

Manipulating molecules through nanotechnology

Developing lightweight batteries for field missions

Summertime at Yale


ENDOWED PROFESSORSHIPS

Devoted Yale alumnus and benefactor John J. Lee dies

Noted legal scholar and humanist Charles L. Black Jr. dies

Commencement Information


MEDICAL NEWS

Graduate School to honor outstanding faculty mentors

Architecture students rise to the task of making a home

Psychologist Edward Zigler is lauded for lifetime achievements

Men's golf team to compete in regional championship

Yale recognized as 'good neighbor'

New 'Smile Carts' honor Yale nurse practitioner and the memory of alumnus

Grant to fund F&ES scholarships

YUWO scholarships to further studies and enhance careers awarded to Yale affiliates

Commencement Concert to mark closing of Morse Recital Hall for renovations

Yale senior's essay on life in New Haven wins first Hegel Prize



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